Mike Burns

National Security Programs Associate Labs Director

As the National Security Programs Associate Labs Director for Sandia National Laboratories, Mike Burns manages Strategic Partnership projects for the U.S. Department of Defense and other federal government departments and agencies, Strategic Intelligence Partnership projects for the U.S. Intelligence Community, and industrial partnerships.

Before joining Sandia, Mike spent more than 32 years in the national laboratory system, most recently as the Integrated Weapons Experiment (J) Division Leader at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), managing high-explosives and energetic materials experiments. Previously at LANL, he served as Deputy Principal Associate Director for Global Security Programs, Director of the Field Intelligence Element, and other management positions.

Prior to his LANL work, Mike served in the White House as Special Assistant to the President for Nuclear Defense Policy on the Homeland Security Council staff. Earlier, he was the first director of the Office of National Laboratories in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate. He also worked with the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Iraq Nuclear Verification Office as a nuclear weapons inspector in Iraq.

Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC., a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International, Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA-0003525.